Killers of the Flower Moon: Oil, Money, Murder and the Birth of the FBI

Good Story

Much has been written on the dreadful way in which native American Indians were treated by the emerging "new" nation of America. This book details a rather different type of abuse. The Osage Indians were driven from their native land and herded into inhospitable reservation land. Their way of life seemed doomed until oil was discovered beneath the ground and, since they owned the rights to the land, this relatively small tribe became instantly wealthy. The author claims that , for a time, they were, per capita, the wealthiest people on earth. However, the government did not consider them to be fit and proper people to manage their own affairs and so their investments were managed by governors - almost always white, successful members of the establishment. Grann's book is really one long investigation into the systematic murder of key members of the Osage nation, by many and varied means. Along the way, he describes the birth of the FBI and profiles it's first director - Hoover. The book is a remarkable piece of detective work but does not have a happy ending, which `I cannot detail for fear of spoiling the book for others. I found the first 2 thirds of the book to be excellent, but the last third is rather tedious with nothing new to add, other than the failure of justice to bring many killers to trial. The writing is good, but is very much in the style of a journalist. The author and his publishers marketed the book with high profile interviews on radio and television and without these I may never have read it. I am glad to have read it, but was left with a feeling that the content simply "ran out." Worth reading, but not a classic.

This book should be read by a great number of people. There are always hucksters to relieve you of your wealth. Add cynical, manipulative tricks and then add murders. Make you weep.

Years ago, back in the Stone Age, I remember seeing a James Stewart movie called "The FBI Story", and episodic - and somewhat hagiographic - history of J Edgar Hoover's decades long expansion of the then Justice Department Bureau of Investigation. One of the episodes covered the Bureau's investigation of the systematic murders of a large number of very rich members of the Osage Nation, a native American tribe living in Oklahoma. At the time, I was sure this was made up. I mean, based on what we hear about the mistreatment and exploitation of the native peoples, whoever heard of a rich Indian? Imagine then, my great surprise when I ran across this book and realized the story was actually true. The Osage were indeed a very wealthy tribe, based on their ownership of mineral rights on their land in Oklahoma which is, if you know your geology, oil country. Since the idea of rich Indians offended the sensibilities of the right-thinking folk in old Oklahoma, there followed a long drawn out campaign to separate the Osage from their money, ultimately culminating (but not actually ending) in at least two dozen savage murders between 1921 and 1925, a period referred to by the Osage as the "reign of terror". It's a shocking and almost unknown story, and the full extent of what happened during that period is not fully and publicly known to this day. Grann, a staff writer at the New Yorker, does make a manful attempt to let the light in, and to be fair, he does a good job on that aspect of the case. He covers the background of the terror, how the Osage came to be in the position they were and how local forces conspired to relieve them of what was theirs, by any means. It should be a mesmerizing read, and yet, it isn't. It's good, and you'll finish it, but somehow it doesn't grip like a book of this nature should. Perhaps it's the sheer, jaw-dropping extent of the conspiracy against the Osage, requiring the reader to keep track of large numbers of people in their minds. Perhaps it's the autonomous actions of different groups and individuals which makes for a somewhat incoherent narrative. Whatever it is, I couldn't go above three stars for this one. Maybe three and a half. A pity, because this is an important story which should be out there, and Grann has done a decent job bringing all the facts to light.

Really good read watched the film but enjoyed the book more.

The research that went into this book was extensive, considering the bibliography and references supplied. It provides an amazing story of absolute corruption throughout a community all in the pursuit of wealth. The corruption is all the more despicable because many of the people involved were meant to be protecting the victims and had often entered in to marriage with the victims. The history is told well, in a style which keeps the pages turning. I am now looking forward to seeing Martin Scorcese's interpretation on the big screen.

Uno di quei casi in cui si legge il libro dopo la visione del film. Un racconto molto interessante e dettagliato sull'avidità e sulle conseguenze dell'avidità dell'uomo

I have not heard about the Osage nation nor the atrocious crimes committed against them before I read this excellent work of researching and storytelling by David Grann. Hence, as I proceeded page after page, I was utterly enthralled by the sinister nature of the conspiracy that took place in the Osage County (if I had not read this, I would probably think the so told story was a work of fiction). This book is an outstanding reminder of the violence, corruption and greed directed to the indigenous people and that hitherto affects the life of its descendants. It is also a nice portrait of the United States in the 20th century, as well as the FBI birth and the oil boom.

A well researched, very well written (including organizationally) narrative history on a subject that has been given attention in the literature but remains relatively unknown by the general public. The murders of the oil rich Osage numbered over a couple dozen and for some brief period a mystery to Osage and authorities alike. I should say, federal authorities. While the murders were another reflection of the shameful treatment of the First Nation people in a historical context, in the instance the perpetrator was a local prominent white man living as a friend of the Indians in their midst. The book deals with how the murders were solved and involved a whole cast of characters including tribal members themselves, for several their lives well recounted. Were it not for the underlying disregard for their race and therefore worth as human beings, this story is very much the age old story about human greed. But thanks to the efforts of federal law enforcement as came to be embodied with the founding of the FBI, the perpetrators, largely Whites but not exclusively, were caught and prosecuted. It is how the author weaves together the story to solve the mystery and in the process ties in side stories about the Indian plight in America and how the Osage by virtually total accident came to reside in one of the richest oil reserves in the country and as a consequence became for a time, the richest Americans because of royalties from the mineral rights, that provides for compelling reading. A positive aspect of the writing is that while the author engages in a handful of side stories to add perspective, they are efficient and accretive to the story, not mini books in themselves that become tedious distractions to the story that characterize too many works of non-fiction. When the main story ended about three quarters through and the author embarked on an epilogue I began to fear his story discipline had broken down. But as it happened the author used the epilogue to tie together loose ends of the story post solving of the murders in the mid 1920s. Very satisfying. If the book has a shortcoming it regards the treatment of the rise of the FBI. It’s superficial at best and is limited to the role the Osage murders played in the evolution of the FBI as a national police investigative agency, the first in the country’s history. Whether that merits being included in the title is open to question.

Awesome book!

This is a fascinating yet deeply disturbing multi-layered account of how greed drove men to murder and of how a combination of uncaring and sloppy police work allowed them to almost escape justice. Truth be told, it was the dogged efforts of one man, Tom White, a former Texas Ranger recruited into the fledgling FBI (before it was even so-named) that must receive the lion’s share of credit for solving these crimes. The Osage Indian Nation would prove to be a wealthy one; at one time considered to be among the richest in the world. After years of struggles and hardship - mostly imposed on them and every other Native American tribe by a federal government which considered them to be “non-humans” (a belief widely held among the White population as well), the Osage finally got what they’d long sought, a permanent home. They purchased a non-descript piece of land in Oklahoma; rocky, barren and not much good for farming, but they were satisfied as were, it seems, the Federal Government and the Whites. But the satisfaction of the latter two would soon sour when it was discovered that “worthless” land sat atop one of the (at that time) largest known oil reserves in the world. The sour note was struck by the fact the lawyer the Osage hired to negotiate the land purchase got mineral rights (the rights to underground resources whatever they might be i.e., oil, coal, gold, uranium, etc.), included in the deal so that when oil was discovered on their land, every Osage tribal member became entitled to a percentage of any revenue that would flow from oil production. And some unscrupulous men wanted to not just share in that wealth, but to take control of it entirely. That is what forms the basis of David Grann’s factual accounting of all the evil these men enacted and the long hard battle to finally find justice for, and return a sense of peace to, the Osage people. Grann has written a well-laid out, researched, and what proved to me to be, a truly horrific story. I believe this to be a book of historical significance that which, upon reading, caused me to reflect on many similarities existing in the way our First Nations people (in Canada) were used and abused by governments, religious orders, and the broader “white” population. And while on the surface it would seem efforts are being made to examine past events; to expose the truth and to seek reconciliation for the many wrongs imposed or inflicted, there remains a long road ahead. We must all work hard to complete that journey.